Walk Your Weight Off With a Friend

Looking to lose 5 pounds? Looking to find a committed partner to help you on your weight-loss and fitness journey? Then look to SocialJane.com to help you find a work-out buddy fast and help you lose weight fast!

It seems to be a natural consequence of being a woman: we always feel as though there is something about our body we should be working to improve. No matter what your girlfriends say, or your spouse, or your kids, there is always that voice in the back of your head telling you that if you could just lose 5 (or 10, 20, 50) more pounds – everything would be better.

Can I tell you something? I hate that voice.

I have a long history of battling (and hating) my body, but over the last couple of years, I think I’ve come to a place of real acceptance – and even love. I’ve learned to stop focusing so much on the numbers, and to instead pay attention to overall health and wellness. Which is where staying active comes in for me. Not so much in order to maintain an ideal weight, but instead to continue showing my body the love it deserves.

I’d like to think that all women eventually hit that point, where it isn’t so much about a number on the scale as it is about being happy and healthy. Maybe you’re there yourself right now. Perhaps you have newly found yourself with an empty nest, and are realizing that for the first time in many years – it is time to take care of you! Or maybe you just had a child and are yearning to feel in control of your body once more. It could even be that after years of battling in much the same ways I once did, you’ve come to a similar conclusion I have – that your body is yours and yours alone, to cherish and care for, not to beat up and destroy.

No matter how you got there, you’re ready to start embracing health now. Which, as we’ve already discussed, starts with getting active. If it’s been a while since you’ve done that, there may be no better place to begin than with a regular walking routine. And sticking to that routine becomes so much easier when you have a friend committed to making a change alongside you!

Finding the Perfect Walking Partner
Sure, you could get out and walk every day by yourself. But you know what? It is so much more enjoyable to do that with a friend! So first things first: let’s find you a walking partner!

Start by hitting up friends and family on your social networks. Share a post about wanting to start a regular routine, perhaps a few nights a week after work, and ask if anyone would be interested in joining you and holding you accountable. If there are no takers there, try your co-workers – you may even be able to arrange time around your lunch breaks to walk together every day!

Still looking, though? Don’t discount the idea of going online to find your perfect walking match. In addition to finding new friends of the general category, SocialJane.com is a great place to find friends of the fitness category as well.

More and more people are turning to the Internet to find their ideal exercise partners – and you might just make a new friend out of seeking someone online with similar goals as you.

Create a No-Shame Zone
Remember, this is about getting healthy, not about beating yourself up. So establish early on that while part of your new walking partnership will involve motivating each other, it won’t ever result in shaming one another. Hold each other accountable, absolutely, but don’t get in a competition of comparing numbers or ridiculing diet choices. The second this stops being fun, you’ll lose all desire to continue doing it – and that isn’t good for either of you.

Embrace the Motivation
Still, don’t forget that there are real benefits to doing this with another person – and one of those is that it is just so much easier to convince yourself to get moving, when someone else is moving right alongside you. We all have those days when we just don’t want to do it, for whatever reason, but knowing someone else is relying on you is usually exactly what it takes to get your butt off the couch and into your walking shoes. Don’t discount that, or downplay it. Remember that you wouldn’t want your walking partner to bail on you, so don’t bail on her unless absolutely necessary. Rely on each other for support and motivation. That’s half the reason you’re doing this together, after all!

Look at it as Time to Download
So what’s the other half-reason for doing this as a pair? Well, the fact that it can be seriously nice to carve out an hour a few times a week to talk to another adult who isn’t your spouse. Starting a walking routine with a good friend means creating those spaces in your week that are reserved just for chatting with someone you enjoy talking to. Sure, you’re walking while you do it, but you are also having so much fun enjoying that girl-time – you hardly even notice when you start building up a sweat!

Because You Deserve It!
No matter what stage of life you are in, and regardless of how much weight you may have to lose, you deserve a little dedicated time to your health and fitness. You deserve the mental health benefits of taking care of yourself. And you deserve the time spent catching up with a good friend while also burning a few calories in the process.

Look, we all love a good wine night spent on the couch with our girlfriends. But there is no one saying you can’t have that, as well. Spend your afternoons walking together, and your evenings preparing a healthy dinner and enjoying that glass of wine. The important thing is to create a routine and stick to it. Get moving.